Supported Map Formats

Dinamica EGO 2.0 and above delegates reading and writing most map formats to the GDAL library GDAL. This allows Dinamica EGO to handle several previously unsupported file formats.

Map Formats Supported for Reading

Thanks to GDAL, Dinamica EGO can read maps in the file formats listed below1) More information about how GDAL handles each file format can be found consulting the GDAL format list in the GDAL website .

Only the most common file formats are listed on the Open Map dialog file filters. However, it is possible to open any of the formats below choosing “All files” in the dialog.
Description	Extension
AIRSAR Polarimetric - AirSAR
ASCII Gridded - XYZ	.xyz
Arc/Info ASCII Grid - AAIGrid	.asc
Arc/Info Binary Grid - AIG	.adf
BIGGIF	.gif
BSB Nautical Chart Format - BSB
CEOS
Convair PolGASP data - CPG
DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster - COASP	.hdr
Daylon Leveller Heightfield - Leveller	.ter
ELAS DIPEx - DIPEx
ELAS DIPEx - ELAS
ENVI Labelled Raster - ENVI	.envi
EOSAT FAST Format - FAST
ERMapper - ERS	.ers
ESRI Labelled - EHdr	.ehdr
EUMETSAT Archive native - MSGN	.nat
EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe - TIL
Envisat Image Product - ESAT	.n1
Erdas 7.x - LAN
Erdas Imagine Raw - EIR
Erdas Imagine - HFA	.img
FARSITE v.4 LCP Format - LCP	.lcp
First Generation USGS DOQ - DOQ1
Fuji BAS Scanner Image - FujiBAS
GDAL Virtual - VRT	.vrt
GSC Geogrid - GSC
GSat File Format - GFF	.gff
Generic Binary - GenBin
Geospatial PDF - PDF	.pdf
Golden Software ASCII Grid - GSAG	.grd
Golden Software Binary Grid - GSBG	.grd
Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid - GS7BG	.grd
Graphics Interchange Format - GIF	.gif
Grid eXchange File - GXF	.gxf
HF2/HFZ heightfield raster - HF2	.hf2
ILWIS Raster Map - ILWIS	.mpr/mpl
Idrisi Raster - RST	.rst
Image Display and Analysis - IDA
In Memory Raster - MEM
JAXA PALSAR Product Reader - JAXAPALSAR
JPEG JFIF - JPEG	.jpg
JPEG2000 - JP2OpenJPEG	.jp2
Japanese DEM - JDEM	.mem
KMLSUPEROVERLAY
Magellan Topo - BLX	.blx
Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap - BMP	.bmp
Military Elevation Data - DTED
NADCON Datum Grid Shift - LOSLAS
NASA Planetary Data System - PDS
NITF	.ntf
NLAPS Data Format - NDF
NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set - L1B
NOAA vertical datum shift - GTX	.gtx
NTv2 Datum Grid Shift - NTv2	.gsb
Netpbm - PNM	.pnm
New Labelled USGS DOQ - DOQ2
Northwood/VerticalMapper Classified Grid Format - NWT_GRC	.grc
Northwood/VerticalMapper Numeric Grid Format - NWT_GRD	.grd
OGC Web Coverage Service - WCS
OGC Web Map Service - WMS
OZI OZF2/OZFX3 - OZI
PCI Geomatics Database File - PCIDSK	.pix
PCI Labelled - PAux
PCRaster	.map
Portable Network Graphics - PNG	.png
PostGIS Raster - PostGISRaster
R Object Data Store - R	.rda
RadarSat2 XML - RS2
Raster Matrix Format - RMF	.rsw
Raster Product Format/RPF - ADRG	.gen
Raster Product Format/RPF - RPFTOC	.toc
SAGA GIS Binary format - SAGA	.sdat
SAR_CEOS
SGI Image Format - SGI	.rgb
SRTM HGT Format - SRTMHGT	.hgt
Spot DIMAP - DIMAP
Standard Raster Product - SRP	.img
Swedish Grid RIK - RIK	.rik
TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF - GTiff	.tif
TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product - COSAR
TerraSAR-X Product - TSX
Terragen Heightfield - Terragen	.ter
USGS ASCII DEM / CDED - USGSDEM	.dem
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 2) - ISIS2
USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 3) - ISIS3
USGS SDTS DEM - SDTS	.ddf
VTP Binary Terrain Format - BT	.bt
Vexcel MFF - MFF	.hdr
Vexcel MFF2 - MFF2
WMO GRIB1/GRIB2 - GRIB	.grb
X11 Pixmap - XPM	.xpm

Map Formats Supported for Writing

Thanks to GDAL, Dinamica EGO can write maps in the file formats listed below1).

Dinamica EGO uses the file extension to decide the map format used to write the file. However, some formats do not either impose or suggest an extension to represent the supported formats. To workaround this limitation, Dinamica EGO invents a corresponding extension using the file format description. On the list of formats below, file formats marked with a star (*) have extensions invented by Dinamica.

Only the most common file formats are listed on the Save Map dialog file filters. However, it is possible to write any of the formats below choosing “All files” in the dialog.

Arc/Info ASCII Grid - AAIGrid

Daylon Leveller Heightfield - Leveller

ELAS DIPEx - ELAS*

ENVI Labelled Raster - ENVI*

ERMapper - ERS*

ESRI Labelled - EHdr*

Erdas Imagine - HFA

GDAL Virtual - VRT

Golden Software Binary Grid - GSBG

ILWIS Raster Map - ILWIS

Idrisi Raster - RST

Image Display and Analysis - IDA*

In Memory Raster - MEM*

Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap - BMP

NITF

NOAA vertical datum shift - GTX

NTv2 Datum Grid Shift - NTv2

Netpbm - PNM

PCI Geomatics Database File - PCIDSK

PCI Labelled - PAUX*

Raster Matrix Format - RMF

Raster Product Format/RPF - ADRG

SAGA GIS Binary format - SAGA

SGI Image Format - SGI

TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF - GTiff

Terragen Heightfield - Terragen

VTP Binary Terrain Format - BT

Vexcel MFF - MFF

Vexcel MFF2 - MFF2*

The support to Arc/Info ASCII Grid (.asc) in GDAL is read only. So, Dinamica EGO provides the writing capability itself. This format can read images using cell types “Signed 32 Bit Integer” and “IEEE 754 32 Bit Real”. All cell types can be written, but they are automatically converted back to one of those formats next time Dinamica EGO reads the image again.

The current ERMapper (.ers) support in GDAL ignores class names. To workaround this limitation, support to reading and writing this file format is provided by Dinamica EGO itself.

GDAL Limitations

The GDAL implementation (and some times the underlying file format) imposes limitations on the representation of projections, layer names, category names and their corresponding colors. Some of these limitations and their corresponding workarounds are listed in the table below:

Limitation	Workaround
Some file formats do not support storing projections.	Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information.
Several file formats do not support storing category names.	Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format has the best support to category names and colors.
Several file formats do not support storing category colors.	Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format has the best support to category names and colors.
Several file formats do not support the storage of layer names.	Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format also has support to layer names.
The categories must start from 0 and their definition must be contiguous.	Unfortunately, the only way to workaround this limitation is defining dummy categories (Dinamica EGO does this when representing non-contiguous categories in a GDAL supported format) or using the ERMapper file format.

Because the ERMapper file format is handled by Dinamica EGO itself and not delegated to the GDAL library. Because of this, the PAM XML file can not be used with this format.

Dinamica EGO Limitations

Dinamica EGO only retrieves and uses category names and colors from the first layer/band when reading a GDAL supported format. All the other layers/bands are supposed to use the same category names and colors.

Additional Notes

It is important to observe some additional details concerning how map reading behaves in the current Dinamica EGO version:

When the map projection is not found, the map projection is left undefined. Previous Dinamica EGO versions (Dinamica EGO 1.8) assumes a LOCAL projection in these cases.

The behavior concerning the omission of cell resolution is also different in the current version. So, when the cell dimension is not defined, a one meter resolution (or one degree, depending on the map projection used) is assumed. Previously, Dinamica would assume a 100 meter or a one degree resolution, depending on the map projection used.

It is only possible to load maps represented by 8, 16 or 32 bits per cell. Other cell types are not supported.

And an additional note concerning map writing: some formats do not support natively all the informations about map projections, map registration, cell resolution, layer names, category names etc. To workaround this, the GDAL library automatically writes an additional PAM XML file containing all the informations that can not be stored in the map file itself. This PAM XML is automatically processed when the map is loaded again in Dinamica EGO.

Virtual Format

Dinamica supports a virtual file format called VRT defined by GDAL.

This format can be used to transform an image defining a different registration info, different class names and a different color table. It can also be use to create mosaics from several different images.